Vehicles (e.g., cars, trucks, planes, boats, motorcycles, autonomous vehicles, robots, forklift trucks etc.) are an integral part of the modern economy. Unfortunately, fossil fuels, like oil which is typically used to power such vehicles, have numerous drawbacks including a reliance on limited foreign sources of fossil fuels such fuels produce pollution and climate change. One way to address these problems is to increase the fuel economy of these vehicles. Recently, gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles have been introduced, which consume substantially less fuel than their traditional internal combustion counterparts, i.e., they have better fuel economy. However, gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles do not eliminate the need for fossil fuels, as they still require an internal combustion engine in addition to the electric motor. Another way to address this problem is to use renewable resource fuels such as bio-fuels. Bio-fuels, however, are currently expensive and years away from widespread commercial use.
Yet another way to address these problems is to use clean technologies, such as electric motors powered by rechargeable fuel cells or batteries. However, rechargeable batteries can take many hours to recharge. For example, batteries may need to be recharged overnight. Furthermore, the re-charging may take place in a public area while the vehicle's owner or operator is not nearby. The connection components between the vehicle and the power source may be subject to accidental or malicious contact during the charging operation which may damage the sensitive electrical interface components.
Accordingly, it would be highly desirable to provide a system for connecting an electric vehicle to a power source that is capable of addressing the above described difficulties.